Freedom and Anchors
by Kitera-Matar
Summary: Jack meets a Tortuga wench he doesn't rememeber, but she rememebrs him, she even has a charm that matchs one of his. What is going on here? please rr i get no reviews and so i can't make my writing better! RR!


Freedom and Anchors  
  
Chapter 1: Of Times Gone Past  
  
Disclaimer: Well you probably know the rigmarole (story), but I'll say it anyway. most of the places, people, or things in this story come from Pirates of the Caribbean's. They are DEFINITLY not mine. If you think that they are, go get your head examined.  
  
Background: This takes place right after Jack leaves Port Royal at the end of the movie. He has just arrived in Tortuga.  
  
Note: I may have gotten some facts wrong, and if I did, and you notice, please tell me and I will try to change it asap.  
  
And now, on with the story.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
In the Port of Tortuga, not far away, in a time past.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"That's it Cap'tin!" Gibbs called up to Captain Jack Sparrow who was still standing at the helm of the ship, holding the wheel.  
  
Without looking away from the distant space he was staring avidly at, he called back, "Very Well! Take Anna Maria and start getting supplies, use all the men, at night let them go where they will, but if they want to stay aboard this ship they had better report back every morning to help load and unload. We leave in exactly a week on the morning tide!"  
  
Gibbs looked at Jack a second, sighed and then started to bark orders to the men as Anna Maria directed them to bring up the empty casks and barrels.  
  
Jack still stared into the distance thinking.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Six days later, the night before the Pearl is to leave Port; the Pearl is restocked, the crew satiated in more ways than one, Jack, Gibbs, and Anna Maria go to a particular (in the fact that it was the closest) pub to quench their thirst.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"Look at this! This is what I call a fine evening!" Jack spread his arms wide and spun around, giving several woman winks along the way. When he turned back to Anna Maria, "What?"  
  
Anna Maria just shook her head and chuckled, "You Jack, you'll never change that's for sure!" And with that she headed after Gibbs who had immediately headed to the bar. She had appointed herself as keeper of Gibbs, who could, and had, drunk himself into a stupor and miss the morning tide.  
  
Jack started to head after her and just pushed past a brunette wench. Jack gave an elaborate bow, "My apologies Miss!" The bar waitress merely lifted one eyebrow and said, "Hello, Jack," then continued on her way.  
  
"Why- Hello!" Jack quickly recovered and ran after her. Anna Maria lanced back, saw him chasing the waitress down and shook her head and turned back to Gibbs.  
  
"Do I know you?" he asked, as he wove his way through the press of people trying to keep up with her. But she was more adept at moving through crowds than he was. When she didn't respond, he reached out and tugged on her butt-length, wavy, brown hair. It was down with just the two parts above her temple tied back with a plain, dark, red ribbon.  
  
She whirled and her silver eyes flashed dangerously at him, "What?!"  
  
"Do I know you?" Jack quickly asked, taken aback but her sudden temper.  
  
"Yes," and with that curt reply she whirled again and continued on.  
  
But Jack noticed something before she had turned her back on him. She wore one necklace. A plain, short, black ribbon; on it hung a charm right in the hollow beneath her neck. The charm was a silver disk with three silver clasps hanging form it and two silver chains hanging form each clasp. Exactly like the one he wore in his hair.  
  
He twisted and pushed through the press to find the wench again. Then he saw her dark blue dress whip around a man and hurried in front of her. She halted abruptly when he was in her way.  
  
Jack wasted no time, he picked up the charm and held it up, "What is this?" Her angry face became expressionless, "It is an earring of min, I have just the one so I wear it as a necklace.  
  
"Why does it match this?" Jack picked up his with the other hand.  
  
Her shield suddenly dropped and her anger poured forth to beat on Jack, "You'll impress women more if you remember the gifts they gave you and you them! Even if you can't remember their names!" She threw both mugs of rum in his face and turned and disappeared into the press.  
  
Jack stood dumbfounded staring after her, rum dripping form his beard, hair, and face. Then some man looked form the disappeared midnight blue dress to Jack's shocked face and then said, "I'd go after her, not good luck to have a mad woman loose, for you or for any of us! 'Specialy one who carries rum," He added thoughtfully and then disappeared.  
  
Jack glared after him and then went after her, yet again. This was starting to become a habit.  
  
Then he stopped chasing his enigma, "Gift?" then he started on his hunt again. He searched for 10 more minutes and received many grins form Anna Maria and drunken cheers from Gibbs.  
  
Finally he caught up to her, "Wait stop! I know your mad at me but please tell me what in the seven seas is going on!"  
  
She slowly turned to face him and at the loving look on her face, a flood of memories came back.  
  
Her name was Priscilla. They had spent several weeks together total, night and day. At the end, before he had to leave, she had given him one of her earrings. She had tied it in his hair and he promised never to take it off. Then he took out a pair of matching rings he had 'found' on one of the pirated ships. He put one on and gave her the other, a sign of his love.  
  
But a lot had happened. Several years had gone by and Barbossa and Inca Treasure were just one thing that had happened, along with the Spanish Main and other things.  
  
He suddenly stopped and a low hiss came from between his teeth, "Oh, Pris, I'm so sorry, I remember now." She could se form the flood of recognition on his face that he did and was not faking it. She smiled and he thought he saw tears in her eyes. She hugged him tight and she shook silently.  
  
He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head and shook her slightly. When she came away she was dry eyed and smiling.  
  
"Come on lets go to the Pearl and get drunk," she smiled and shook her head but got them some bottles of rum and they walked to the ship.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Several bottles of rum and wild songs later.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Jack was sitting against the front of the wheel post and Pris lay with her head in his lap. Their sudden festive mood had gone as soon as it had come. Now they lay quietly watching the waning moon.  
  
"My mother was always a bitter woman. She felt deserted by my father, and she was, but she always hated ships because they took him away from her. I guess I grew up with her bitterness and I have it, but I also had a hope that maybe, my life would be different. That my prince in shining armor would come up to me, sweep me off my feet, and whisk me away to his castle in the sky. When I met you, sure, you're a scallywag, but you have something in you Jack, something that I can't quite place. But I like it Jack, I like it a lot. So when you were interested in me too, I felt so happy, I had found the man I loved.  
  
Jack, what does the Pearl mean to you?"  
  
Jack stared out at the sea; the worn deck beneath them swayed with the waves and shook with the wind. But the night was clear and the moon and stars were out, and shone brilliantly on them. Priscilla wasn't even sure if he had heard a word of what she said, but she wasn't at her clearest right now.  
  
"Freedom." It was a low whisper that came out, "The Pearl is freedom. She will take you wherever and when ever you want. She can carry you away and back again. She can take you to that horizon and beyond. When I have that wheel beneath my hands and an ocean ahead of me, I feel as if I have something important to do, some life-changing world event to start. I feel the happiest then, when I steer out of a harbor and into the sea to go, just go anywhere." Jack's voice was low and filled with passion, it was a passion for a thing he loved, and Pris simply stared at him for a second before shaking her head.  
  
She stood up and weaved in the air a bit. "I am going to get more rum, want some?"  
  
"Sure," Jack waved her towards the front cabin and room that had three sides with windows. "'s in the cabinet, you can fine it." his speech was a bit slurred but he was still awake and staring out to sea, he turned and watched Pris.  
  
Pris got up, and weaving a bit, walked to the cabin, with Jack's eyes on her. When she got in there, she started to search the cabinets, but suddenly she became distracted by the way the moonlight played on the water and sat down on the padded bench to watch it more. Before she knew it she was out and lay sleeping on the bench, an empty bottle of rum clutched to her chest.  
  
On deck, Jack too was asleep. As soon as the comforting weight of the woman was gone he had started to drift off and he found that the ship was rocking him off to sleep as she so often did.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
The next day, at morning tide, way to early in the morning.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Jack was woken up by Gibbs shaking his shoulder roughly and hard; "Get up, you lazy bones, morning tide is here! Come on, we have to go!"  
  
Jack stood up and was silently grateful for Anna Maria who grabbed his arm and held him upright from falling. "Whoa, thanks." Jack looked around and saw his crew straggling onto the ship form Tortuga, some looked more awake than others, and some looked way worse than others, but all were there.  
  
"Set sails and ship out oars!" Jack groaned, "Cottens' parrot REALLY needs to learn some more along the lines of 'aye, aye, cap'tin' or something."  
  
"Very well, Everyone ready!?" After a chorus of shouts and Jack did a quick counting to see that they had everyone and then he started to yell orders to prepare the ship for leaving Tortuga.  
  
But Jack couldn't get rid of a nagging suspicion that he was forgetting something, something important. But he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. He looked down at the bottle of rum that lay on the deck and a nagging doubt hi him that it had to do with last night, but he couldn't quite remember.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
By the afternoon they were some nine hours from Tortuga, about 90 miles, and Jack still couldn't get rid of the nagging doubt as he stood at the helm, his new compass in had, one that DID point north. But for old times sakes, or maybe the treasure, he still did keep his special compass.  
  
Suddenly there was a flurry of activity by the door to the cabin, and as he looked, a tousle headed woman stepped out. He stared dumbfounded at her, and then the memories of last night came rushing back, they singing, talking, and drinking. He remembered their talks and their songs and knew what it was that he had forgotten.  
  
The normal laughing and talking of the crew died down to whispers and quietness. Slowly a path cleared itself form Priscilla to Jack. Priscilla walked slowly with her head up and with courage and power in every movement and step. Jack was reminded sharply of why he had spent some much of his time with her and had given her his promises.  
  
She walked up to him and looked up at him with hesitant love and apprehension. Jack looked down at her with an unreadable face. Suddenly he smiled and swooped down on her. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, "Well, my little prisoner, I guess we will have to put up with each other for a while longer now won't we love?"  
  
Priscilla gave him a beaming smile of love and joy. Jack felt his heart race at that joy and wondered what this Tortuga wench was doing to him, he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. But for now, he would wait and see, he had to go somewhere and would take their advice on the matter. Elizabeth and Will were into this sort of thing; maybe they could help.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Well, what do you think, I know this is all very romanticly and fluffy, and I can't guarantee what will come later on, since I don't know. I may be a short fluffy fic, it may become very action adventurey, I don't know, we'll see. R/R please! And give me some constructive criticism on how I can improve my writing since it must be bad since hardly anyone reviews my fics. PELASE!  
  
~Kit ;) 


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